Fun Things You Will Find in the Cap and Trade Bill

This is real language from H.R. 2454, the Cap and Trade bill:

i) PETITION.—Any person may peti-
tion the Secretary to establish standards for
lamp shapes or bases that are excluded from
the definition of general service lamps.

Whew, that's good to know! Sure hope I own general service lamps that are OK!

Not later than 1 year after the
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy
shall, in consultation with the National Electrical
Manufacturers Association, collect data for United
States sales of luminaires described in section
340(26)(H) and (M) of the Energy Policy and Con-
servation Act, to determine the historical growth rate.

Wasn't sure of the definition on this, so I checked:

lu·mi·naire (lo̵̅o̅′mə ner′) noun; a floodlight fixture, with a lamp, reflector, etc.

OK, got that straightened out - so, the Federal Government based in Washington D.C. is going to monitor the sales of floodlights...I can't find this in the Constitution...but wait, there's more:

INGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the date
of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy, in con-
sultation with the Administrator, shall establish a program
to be known as the ‘‘Best-in-Class Appliances Deployment

Program’’ to—

(1) provide bonus payments to retailers or dis-
tributors under subsection (c) for sales of best-in-class
high-efficiency household appliance models, high-effi-
ciency installed building equipment, and high-effi-
ciency consumer electronics, with the goal of reducing
life-cycle costs for consumers, encouraging innovation,
and maximizing energy savings and public benefit;

So the Feds are going to reward retailers and buyers of energy efficient appliances? How much is that going to cost and where is the money going to come from?

The program shall provide free or dis-
counted shade-providing or wind-reducing trees
to residential and small office consumers inter-
ested in lowering their home energy costs.

I have Druid ancestors and feel very strongly about trees, but I don't need my local utility getting bonuses from the Feds (my tax dollars) to get them to plant some trees...why is my Congressman wasting time on this?

Now, in the "who cares about the cost?" category we have these gems:

(A) effective on the date of enactment of
the American Clean Energy and Security Act of
2009, 30 percent reduction in energy use relative
to a comparable building constructed in compli-
ance with the baseline code;

‘‘(B) effective January 1, 2014, for residen-
tial buildings, and January 1, 2015, for com-
mercial buildings, 50 percent reduction in en-
ergy use relative to the baseline code; 11

Folks, I am a builder. The implications of this on housing cost are huge. Developers and builders SHOULD do the best they can to do minimum harm to the earth - we can do it with landscaping, materials selection and construction methodology...but to have this MANDATED from some gnome in Washington that has never swung a hammer is very scary stuff.

Well, there's a lot more in this thing that is frightening...I have taken the time to read the first 500 pages or so...there are 1,092 pages...who in DC has read any of it?